Ethereum's Path to 10,000 Transactions Per Second with New Scaling Technology

According to Cointelegraph, Ethereum is on the verge of a significant breakthrough in transaction speed, potentially reaching 10,000 transactions per second. This advancement follows the introduction of a new scaling technology known as Pico Prism. Brevis, an Ethereum scaling firm, unveiled a cutting-edge zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) designed for real-time proving. This technology allows Ethereum blocks to be proven almost instantaneously using standard retail gaming processors (GPUs) instead of costly supercomputers. Brevis announced that it has achieved real-time proving of Ethereum Layer 1 using consumer-grade hardware, specifically utilizing 64 Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics cards, the leading model for gaming. In a test conducted in September, Pico Prism achieved 99.6% real-time proving in under 12 seconds. Real-time proving (RTP) involves generating a cryptographic proof that a block was executed correctly faster than new blocks are produced. This development marks a significant step toward scaling Ethereum by 100 times, envisioning a future where the blockchain can be validated from a mobile phone. The breakthrough signifies that the computationally expensive process of proving has finally matched block production speed using affordable consumer hardware, making lightweight validation feasible for the first time. Currently, every validator re-executes each transaction to verify blocks, requiring expensive hardware and creating a bottleneck. Real-time proving changes this model by allowing one prover to generate a proof that others can verify in milliseconds. According to the Ethereum roadmap, validators will transition from re-executing transactions to verifying ZK-proofs, enabling the base layer to achieve 10,000 transactions per second. Ryan Sean Adams from Bankless stated that at a scaling rate of three times per year, Ethereum Layer 1 could reach 10,000 TPS by April 2029. The upcoming Fusaka upgrade, expected in December, will simplify real-time proving, as explained by Bitcoin security researcher Justin Drake. He noted that EIP-7825 will cap per transaction gas usage, allowing for more parallel proving via subblocks. By the end of the year, several teams are expected to prove every Layer 1 EVM block on a 16-GPU cluster, consuming less than 10kW in total. The Ethereum Foundation described this as a significant step toward Ethereum's future, emphasizing that ZK technology like Pico Prism will enable Ethereum to scale to meet global demand while remaining trustworthy and decentralized. Tech entrepreneur Mike Warner highlighted the potential for a 'phone-as-a-node' future. Ethereum is evolving into a zk-chain, with Layer 1 running global DeFi at 10,000 TPS and nodes operable on a phone, while Layer 2 handles other operations. This development represents the blockchain's holy grail: achieving massive scalability without compromising decentralization or security.